I got a second chance!

[Yvonne G]

Someone up there must've felt sorry for me, either that or I've been a very good girl...

I went outside just at the right time to do my evening chores tonight. I always count heads to make sure everyone is up for the night. My Manouria emys emys has been on again off again moving substrate into the house, making quite a nice big mound in a corner. But she wasn't real enthusiastic about it. Sometimes she worked on it...sometimes she didn't. She's with a male, but he's less than half her size. Tonight when I turned on the light to count noses, she was covering up (and messing up) a bunch of eggs. She laid them pretty close to the top of the pile, and all her scraping and pushing was messing with the eggs. So I moved her aside and gathered them all up. Looks like there's about 23 of them:

A very nice lady over on Shelled Warriors gave me a link to a paper written about temperature sexing incubation for Manouria and the temperatures they found to work. Plus our own Egyptian Dan gave me some pointers too. Now I'm going to get out a whole 'nother incubator dedicated only to these 23 eggs, and start over.

If anyone has any helpful hints as to why I keep getting mold growing on the eggs, I'm all ears. I use vermiculite. This last batch was staying too wet, so I scrapped it and put in vermiculite right out of the bag with no moisture on it. I just spritzed the eggs every morning with warm water. I don't wash off the eggs prior to putting them in the incubator either. They have a slimey protective coating on them that is supposed to stay there.

 

[dmmj]

wow congratulations

 

[Yvonne G]

wow congratulations

This is me grinning from ear to ear!

 

[Jacqui]

and here we were this morning just talking about this! Congrats Yvonne and I hope this time it works out better. I mean really, one of us has got to start getting our eggs to actually hatch out.


...and P.S. yes, you have been a very good girl helping so many new folks in here with their animals.

 

[dmmj]

It sounds like they do not bury the eggs, is that true?

 

[Ashliewood]

How exciting!!!! Good luck with the eggs

 

[Tom]

Congrats Yvonne!

I don't know anything about Manouria eggs, but I don't ever spritz any of mine. I use plastic shoe boxes or tupperware containers. I drill 4-6 quarter inch holes around the top of the sides. Then I put my empty shoe box on a scale and turn the scale on and zero it. Then I put as much dry vermiculite in the box as I want and watch the weight. Then I add that same amount of weight in water. So, if I added 185 grams of vermiculite, then I add 185 grams of water and mix it all up. Then I put my eggs in and put the lid on. I don't usually add anymore water or spray anything for the duration of incubation. In fact, I only even open the incubator or the top of the shoe box once every week or two, to check for rotten ones. You know, the "smell" test.

Don't know if this info will help or not. Just sharing what works for me for Leopard and sulcata eggs. I'm wondering if wetting the eggs every day OR just opening the containers every day is contributing to the fungus. I never get any fungus or mold on any of my eggs. I'll occasionally have one go bad ( one every third clutch or so), but never any fungus.

 

[african cake queen]

must feel like EASTER at your house, how cool! lindy

 

[tyler0912]

WOW congratulations hope it all turns out for you yvonee....you deserve it!

 

[AnthonyC]

Congrats! You must be SO excited!!

 

[cemmons12]

that's great! Keep us posted on their progress!

 

[Yvonne G]

It sounds like they do not bury the eggs, is that true?

Normally they push, pull, shove and scrape, moving backwards, substrate into a big pile (like alligators do). Then they turn around and dig with their front legs excavate a small indentation in the mound into which they deposit the eggs. Then they turn back around and using their back legs, cover the eggs by pushing, scraping, shoving the substrate over them. For a few days after laying the eggs, they will move off the nest and, moving backwards again, push, shove, scrape substrate back to the nest, piling it up into a nice mound. When they're all through, they will sit on top and guard it for a while, maybe days.

As for spritzing the eggs...if they aren't kept moist, they collapse.

 

[dmarcus]

Wow thats a lot of eggs. Hope you have some success with these...

 

[yagyujubei]

Firstly, you've got to clean your incubators with bleach (sodium hypochlorite), they're full of mold spores waiting for warm and moist. You have to toss bad eggs BEFORE they get moldy. Good luck. Personally, I would wash the eggs also.

---

Do not let any explode.

 

[Yvonne G]

Firstly, you've got to clean your incubators with bleach (sodium hypochlorite), they're full of mold spores waiting for warm and moist. You have to toss bad eggs BEFORE they get moldy. Good luck. Personally, I would wash the eggs also.

---

Do not let any explode.

---

Thank you. It never occurred to me that the spores were still alive in there waiting for the right conditions.

 

[Turtle Guru]

I would THANK the LORD for that BLESSING

 

[wildak]

I use "super hatch" clay media that holds water well and cover the eggs with damp moss. The moss is acidic enough to keep mold from growing and keeps the moisture and humidity up. I use the "Xterra" brand moss as it's clean and bug free. I also use a cheap digital humidistat ($30), I think it's Xterra as well. I shoot for 80-85% open air humidity. I also only open up the incubator once a week for an air exchange and to check eggs.
Good luck

 

[RV's mom]

congrats! I am excited for you!

 

[Jacqui]

So how are the eggs looking????

 

[stena29]

I'm jealous!!!! Lol congrates though!!!